


Invincible

by cuneifire



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: 16th Century, Drabble, Gen, Historical Hetalia, Japanese History - Freeform, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-05-19
Packaged: 2019-05-08 20:18:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14701440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cuneifire/pseuds/cuneifire
Summary: Japan cannot die. But he can bleed.





	Invincible

**Author's Note:**

> can someone please tell me what the hell quantifies 'graphic depictions of violence'? Is 'and then john was punched' enough, or is it only full on body horror for that here? this has been bothering me for freaking centuries.

He sits among the ash of the temple, hands clasped around the knife. The fire has long burned out, but still he stays.

                The temple, not a few sun beats ago, was in flames. Burned by enemy warriors, sunk into ash by fire. But now it, and the land around it, is peaceful.

Japan’s knife is coated in blood, fingers loosely folded around the hilt as he looks to the sky, not a spotted cloud in his vision.

A few hours ago Japan had attempted to die, and a few hours ago he had failed.

He remembers very clearly watching the men near him fall over in death, kneel and take their honour with sleek, short but elegant knives.

He remembers very clearly trying over and over, and failing.

                Blood from his still bleeding wounds ropes over his hands like scars, but he does not bother to take notice. The sky is very nice today, the wind almost pleasant.

He would very much like to close his eyes, but he insists on keeping them open.

                The knife’s hilt is elegant, patterns carved in and out of fire forged metal.

Japan raises his hand to look at the knife that pieced him but failed to break him. He wonders why; he feels sick, like he may just cough up blood as well as bleed it, but still the knife fails to reach his heart.

He wants to die, he thinks, rather slowly as he stares up at the cloudless sky. Pieces of him fall off and apart and fracture and turn on one another and his head hurts and he just wants it to be over, wants to sink into the shadows and forget these endless twists and turns of hilted knives and pretty words and violence.

But he can’t, he thinks as a bird flies over him, disrupting his vision of the sun. He can’t die. His hands may be coated into his blood, his fingers may shake when he picks up a sword, he may feel like nothing but a puzzle with missing pieces, but he cannot die. Not for now, at least.

He grabs the knife by the hilt, and slams the blade into the ground, using the force to push himself up to his feet, steel _haidate_ catching against leather cord as he pushes to his feet.

He stares onto the horizon, not blinking although the sun burns his eyes.

He cannot die today. Or tomorrow. He has an empire to build, to pull back from pieces.

**Author's Note:**

> -Story takes place during the Sengoku Jidai, or the Age of Warring States, a period in which Japan was in constant battle between various clans of the island.  
> -Seppuku is a form of suicide in which a person would kill themselves by cutting the abdomen and bleeding to death, usually to avoid enemy capture, dishonour, or torture. Seppuku knives are generally short, tipped on one side, and can come with various carvings and engravings.  
> -The story’s pretty open ended as to the time period, but my personal thought would be in 1582, after the death of Oda Nobunaga, one of the uniting founders of Japan, who committed seppuku after being surrounded by enemies. But it’s really open to interpretation.


End file.
